Tokyo plans Olympics management

JAPAN - A multi-headed organizational structure based on the one used for the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games will likely be adopted for the 2020 Tokyo Games, sources said.

The organising committee will be led by an Olympic board-a four-member decision-making body to include the Olympic minister and Tokyo governor-similar to the board that successfully ran the London Games, the sources said.

The Tokyo metropolitan government and Japan Olympic Committee expect the International Olympic Committee secretariat to endorse the plan during working-level talks, which began Thursday in Tokyo.

According to the metropolitan government and other sources, the organising committee will be launched as a general incorporated foundation in February, and later converted into a public interest incorporated foundation so it can receive preferential tax treatment.

The organising committees for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and 1998 Nagano Winter Games were both led by chairmen, but the top decision-making body for the 2020 Games is expected to be a four-person Olympic board comprising the Olympics minister, the Tokyo governor, the JOC chairperson and the organising committee director.

Under this body would be the organising committee, comprised of a board of trustees with the power to elect directors, a board of directors and a secretariat that would carry out the actual work.

"The organising committee will recruit a large number of sponsors and donations, so it must be politically neutral," a high-ranking Tokyo official said.

A member of the business community will likely be invited to chair the board of directors. This chairperson will also serve as a member of the Olympic board.

Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's name has been floated to lead the organising committee, but the idea drew opposition from Tokyo Gov. Naoki Inose, who said the appointment was "something the metropolitan government and JOC would decide."